Hea' Dover Heels for Camping

Last weekend we had the awesome chance to take our first camping trip together as a married couple! We bought a tent earlier in the spring and have been gradually stocking up on gear, so last Friday the time finally came to book a site. We chose Cedar Lake Campground in Dover, PA (hence the title of this post). Unfortunately, the trip did not start out great--at least for me. The traffic getting out of Philadelphia was awful, and a trip that should have taken us a little over two hours took four or better. We left home around 4pm, and after a stop at Walmart and a fine beverage vendor we were able to set up camp by just after 9pm, in the dark. We bought some firewood but were expecting to be able to also purchase a fire starter (we did not have any paper). But it was so late that the camp store was closed, so we were SOL. Thankfully, after making a fool of myself for awhile a neighbor took pity and started our fire for us! So we could finally turn off the headlights, finish setting up, and make supper (after 10pm at this point)! The weather was mercifully beautiful and cool, and the bugs did not bother us that night.

The next day, Saturday, we were able to completely turn around the misery of the drive to Dover: the weather remained sunny and warm, but not hot, the bugs stayed away, and relaxation came easily. We spent the day walking around the campground and gawking at the seasonal trailer residences, reading (for fun--first time for me in a dog's age), cooking over the fire, and watching fishermen; our site was on the edge of a private pond where campers can fish, and they do pretty well! On Sunday we cleaned and packed up our gear and were out of the campground before noon, to give Danielle enough time to write a paper that was due Sunday afternoon.  

I think that is everything I want to write about our trip. Danielle might have a better memory and want to add some things, but for now at least here are a bunch of pictures with descriptions:

Our site from the pond's edge, complete with our adorable "His and Hers" chairs (they are not actually a set)

Right across the lake from us was a "petting zoo," complete with two awesome goats! I think the gray one noticed Danielle snooping.

Our tent with our sandals in front, proving we were there I guess. 

Another picture of the petting zoo across the lake, but zoomed out for better context: isn't the campground beautiful!?

This is the view from our site looking the opposite direction of the petting zoo: the fountain provided great ambient noise for sleeping.

These birds were frequent visitors to our site, and there is a third one not in this shot. They were a little too bold for my tastes, but neat: plus the two white ones wiggled their tails in a pretty awesome way.

This is a view of ALMOST the full lake from the bridge to the petting zoo; our site is just visible on the right.

Obviously: me with the goats. 

A pond across the road from the "lake" had huge patches of what I guess were lily pads, with these beautiful flowers.

Danielle had to lay on her belly to get this cool shot of the patch, encompassing the full spectrum of bloom.

"J" is for "June" and "Job"

Well I feel like a horse's patootie: I cannot believe I have not written a post since March. It is not fair to you all, and it has left me feeling like I have bottles up inside of me, and I need to write to get them out! I feel guilty and alien, as if I went off to war, leaving my beautiful young wife to run the ranch that is our blog. And now I am returning, battle weary, from my tour. Unfortunately, the war was more of a civil one with my own lethargy and indifference, and now we all have to bear with my postbellum reconstruction. It will be painful, and I will be slow to open up to you again, but in the end the most important thing is that we are all reunited.

What has happened since my post of March 26 that Danielle has not written about? There are already posts about our spring break trip, our vacation back home in MN, the day trip to Ocean City, NJ...oh yeah: I got a job. Since mid-April I have been working for a federal contractor as a writer for the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED). I get to work from home, which is a mixed bag, but I also get to travel a little, which is a plus for me. So far I have only been to San Diego for work, but it was a great trip! The company that develops one of BUMED's healthcare IT systems is based in San Diego, so I will probably be back there again. I also visited the Naval Medical Center San Diego and am hoping to have opportunities to check out other Navy medical facilities around the country.

Beyond the new job, to be honest, there is not much to report. Danielle has been doing a great job on the blog, though, has she not? Well, I guess I will sign off now: better to start slow and ease myself back into our relationship. I hope to write you all again soon.

Later gators,

Rory      

Ocean City, NJ

Hello Folks!

As promised, here begins the travel section of our blog. This past Saturday was a bright, sunny, and happy day so we decided to head out to Ocean City, NJ for some sun and shore. It is about 1 hour and 15 minutes away to the coast from Philly. 

We started our visit by checking out a restaurant on the boardwalk that we had Yelped before arrival. It was a cute, little seafood joint tucked back behind the main stores.  It's called Hula Restaurant in case anyone wants to go. We both had the special of the day - fish tacos!!!! They were unique, but pretty good. Here is a picture of Rory looking cute while waiting for our food to arrive:

Then, we decided the best way to tackle the sensory overload of the board walk would be to walk the entire length both ways and see everything before deciding what we would like to do. It was a beautiful day so it was the perfect day for strolling along the wood planks, feeling the ocean breeze, and listening to the seagulls. They even have helpful signs to tell you how far you have walked. See:

Along the walk we picked up some "world famous" caramel popcorn from Johnson's, and it really was quite delicious. Then, we scoped out which mini golf place looked the best. The boardwalk is mostly little food places (not really sit down places, more like counters), shops, 2 amusement parks, and a number of mini-golf places. We narrowed it down to a Pirates themed one which Rory said really "called to him" with its Pirates of the Caribbean music setting the stage for adventure. But, there was also a Congo themed one that had intrigue written all over it. I told Rory he could pick and he had quite the time deciding which would be cooler. But, ultimately we chose how we always do in these situations - we went with the cheaper of the two (saved a nickel on each ticket dontchya know). I can't say that Congo themed mini-golf was a disappointment - there were even 3 options for courses, and we chose an awesome mine course. 

And, it wouldn't be a trip to the shore without putting our toes in the ocean and walking along the white sand beach. So, that's exactly what we did!  We finished it all up with a visit to Shriver's Salt Water Taffy where we saw taffy being made and were able to sample a fresh piece of taffy right out of the cooker. 

All in all it was a great day in Ocean City, NJ. I won't ruin your image of this lovely city with long tales of the drive home. I will say that we ended up sitting in traffic for 2 hours while waiting to move the last 3 miles before crossing the bridge back into Philly because of a nasty traffic accident. This wait spurred us to get off the highway to turn around, temporarily landing us in Camden, NJ. If you have never heard of Camden before, let's just say we breathed a lot easier the moment we got the car back on the highway out of there!

But, enjoy the rest of our pictures below. I hope everyone else is enjoying the beginning of summer. Wishing you lots of sunshine and happiness, Danielle.

Additionally, we finally tried Rita's. It is a water ice and frozen custard chain around here. It's slogan is that it sells happiness. We had to buy some of that happiness. Rory clearly really enjoyed it!

Spring Cleaning

I forgot to mention in the last post that one of the first things I did when we got back to Philly was to do a bit of spring cleaning. I finally organized the hallway storage closet. It was pretty organized before but boxes had piled up in the middle. I am pretty proud of my work (and it has managed to stay very organized for the past week) so I thought I would share with you all.  Here are the pics:

Back in Philly Again

Hello everyone! We may have just had the wonderful opportunity to see many of your lovely faces in person as we were just in our sweet homeland- Minnesota! After a long 21 hours or so, traveling non-stop, we arrived back in Philly successfully this afternoon. It was so great to be home, see family, and just have a little time to relax before getting back into the swing of our life here. I was even fortunate enough to celebrate my 24th birthday surrounded by a bunch of family. (and for everyone at the birthday brunch who loved the cake, you can find the recipe here: ) We spent the last hour of the journey back speculating nervously about what we would find when we opened the door to the apartment. Rory was most concerned about finding a group of cockroaches had invaded and made home in our apartment while we were away. For me, I was most worried that my plants, which I had to leave behind, would be all dead. Well, the first thing we discovered upon arrival made me quite unpleasant. No, it was not the plants- it was the weather. We stepped out of the car and into a thick, heavy, humid air that makes me very worried that the impending summer months may be somewhat unbearable. But, as Rory has the great ability to look on the positive side of things usually, he told me that if we keep sweating this much we should have no problem reaching our weight loss goals. Aw well, I am just hoping maintenance will come and install our A/C soon! Then, when we opened the door to the apartment it was good news all around. The apartment was just as clean as we left it, and, despite being a bit dry, all my plants were alive! And the cockroach count was very manageable - one dead in the kitchen sink and three alive but easily killable ones in the bathroom. So, overall it was a very successful trip home and then back again. Please keep in touch over the summer. We plan to highlight the best of summer traveling (well at least as good as our time and money can get us) on the East Coast and Pennsylvania. Enjoy your Memorial Day weekends and happy unofficial start to summer. Best, Danielle

Philadelphia Flyers

What an exciting day! Despite the name of this post, it did not involve seeing Philadelphia's professional hockey team - but the name will become clear by the end of the post.

The first and biggest part of the story is that I drove in Philly for the first time! I have been so scared to drive here because the drivers here, as many of our past posts describe, are not great. The pace is generally much faster and the drivers can be a little inconsiderate of those around them. I have been especially hesitant about driving on one of the main roads here - Highway 76. To get on from our place involves using an on ramp from the left of the road instead of the right like usual. And, as we all know the left most lane is the fast lane, so it is no place for a timid driver like me to enter, not to mention the fact that we almost got smushed by a big truck while going onto it and I saw my life flash before my eyes. Luckily, there is another on ramp not far and there was a lot of traffic, so it wasn't too hard to get onto it. Overall, I'd say it was a successful first trip.

The best part of it is that I was able to get back in the saddle in time for our long drive back to MN on Tuesday. That's right, we will be rolling into the great state of Minnesota sometime on Wednesday afternoon and we couldn't be more excited. Hopefully we'll be able to see many of you while we are there!

Now on to the flyers part of this post. Last month, Rory and I attended the PIE (Public Interest Experience) Grant Auction. It is a really fun auction event that raises money for PIE grants that support selected students who are doing public interest work for the summer. Fortunately, I was one of the selected recipients of a grant! But that is neither here nor there, the really fun part of the night was that I, along with a group of other students, bought a bird watching expedition with one of our professors. So, today was the day we cashed it in and went for a fun hike with our professor.

We met at Wissahickon Park, a beautiful park in northwestern Philly in a cute little residential neighborhood. We hiked around for a couple of hours with our professor pointing out the different birds we were seeing in her book and learning how to better use binoculars as we went along. After weeks of being cooped up inside studying for finals, we were all very happy to be outside and enjoying the fresh air. We saw a cardinal, baby geese, baby ducks, some wood ducks, grackle, and some more common warblers. The excursion ended by joining our professor, her husband, and son at their house to hang out and drink some beer while sitting on their deck enjoying the nice weather. All in all, it was a perfect ringing in of the summer and closing of the school year. Now I can relax for a few weeks before starting in on my internship.

And, as I said, we are very excited to spend some time in MN over the next few weeks and maybe even to see some of you. Hope everyone is well.

This is for the birds :)
-Danielle

Both the cockroach and the bird would get along very well without us, although the cockroach would miss us most.
- Joseph Wood Krutch

Wrapping Up Ends...And Welcoming Beginnings

Hi All,

Wow - it has been waaaaay too long. So, hello friends, and hopefully absence has made the heart grow fonder. I guess the almost month absence means we've either been too busy or too boring to write. Actually it's a little bit of both - we've been boringly busy (so busy with boring things, like homework).

Anyways, I write to share a big moment for me. Tomorrow marks the last day of classes of my first year of law school! This semester has flown by, contributing to the craziness of being 1/3 done with my law school career. Granted, I still have 2 weeks of studying and 3 finals left before it is officially done, but it has still been quite a ride. Thank you to all of our friends and family for all of your support. It's been a life changing year both in and outside of school and I'm so glad I've had your love and encouragement through it all.

This week has also marked the beginning of Rory's job! We are excited for his great opportunity and new beginning. He still isn't sure what the job will entail, but he is sure to gain a lot of great experience. So, please keep him in your thoughts as he goes through the work and anxiety of starting a new job.

Love you all,

Danielle